FELISBERTO HERNANDEZ
383
her eyes shifted from the glass of wine to the tip of the man 's sleeve,
where a tuft of hair grew, crawling all the way down hi s hand to his
fingers . As he wa ited on the mas ter of the ho use, Alex said :
"Walter-" (the pianist ) " is here."
After dinner Alex removed the g lasses on a tray. T hey rang aga inst
each o ther, as if happy to meet aga in . The mas ter, who had fallen in to
a sleepy silence, was pleasantl
y
stirred a t the sound and called out after
him :
"Tell Walter to go to the p iano. He mustn 't talk to me as I come
into the room . Is the p iano far from the glass cases?"
" Yes, Sir, on the other side of the room."
"Good . T hen tell Walter to sit with his back to me, to start on the
fi rs t p iece of the program and keep repea ting it without stopping until
I fl ash the li ght a t him ."
His wife was smiling a t him. H e went up to kiss her and for a
moment res ted hi s flu shed face on her cheek. Then he headed for the
little parlor off the big showroom . T here he started
to
smo ke and drink
his coffee, wa iting for the ri ght mood
to
come over him before he went
in to see the do lls. At first he listened vaguely for the no ise of the
machines and the sounds of the p iano, which reached him in low
murmurs, as if he were underwater. At moments he started, imaginin g
some of the sounds were hinting a t something meant for him alon e, as
if he were being si ngled o ut among severa l people snoring in a room .
But when he tried to con centra te on them, they sca ttered like fri ghtened
mice. H e sa t there puzzled for a minute, then decided to ignore them .
But suddenl y he rea lized he was n 't in his chair anymore: he' d gotten up
without no ticing it. He remembered having just o pened the door, and
now he felt his steps ta kin g him toward the first glass case. He switched
on the light in the case and through the green curtain he saw a doll
stretched out on a bed . He opened the curtain and mounted the
podium. It was actuall y a small ro lling pla tform on rubber cas ters,
with a railing. From there, sea ted in an armchair at a little table, he had
a better view of the scene. The doll was dressed as a bride and her o pen
eyes sta red a t the ceiling.
It
was imposs ibl e
to
tell whether she was
dead or dreaming. Her arms were spread in an a ttitude of wha t could be
either des pair or blissful abandon . Before opening the drawer of the
little table
to
read the caption, he wanted to imagine something. Maybe
she was a bride waiting for the groom , who would never arrive, having
jilted h er just before the wedding . Or maybe she was a widow remem–
bering her wedding day; or just a girl dressed up to feel like a bride. He
opened the drawer and read : "A moment before marrying the man she
doesn 't love, she locks herself up, in the dress she was to wear to her
